| Forest Resources |
State
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he indicators used for this section:
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Kazakhstan | |
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| A bout 60% of the total land fund area (272.1 million hectares) is covered more or less with vegetation, including forests. The percentage of land covered by forest of the republic territory on average is estimated by 3.8%, though in some oblasts such as Aktubinsk, Djezkazgan it is only 0.1% but in the Eastern-Kazakh and Northern-Kazakh oblasts it reaches 14% and even higher. According to the international standard, saksaul forests and bushes are not considered to be forests, the real percentage of land covered by forest of the republic is 1.3%; it is 20 times less than the world average and 25 times lower than in the CIS countries. |
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The forests fund area (01.01.97) is 24.3 million hectares over 50% of these lands are given to the long-term use to the agricultural enterprises. The lands of the forest fund have 98% of forests. The desert forests occupy 63%, the steppe forests occupy 20%, the mountain - 16%, the relic riparian (tugai) biogeocenosis - 1%. On the territory the communities of the black and white saksaul occupy 4994.7 hectares(48.6%), then the pine forests (9.4%), the birch forests (8.8%) and the silver fir forests (3.7%). |
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According to the forest fund in 1996 the total wood reserves in the forests were 357.75 million m³, among them hard leaf bearing - 10.09, soft leaf-bearing - 117.66, coniferous - 230.00. As compared with 1995, the total stock of wood in the forests decreased to 12.06 million m³. The reduction took place in general because of hard leaf-bearing species decrease.
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Kyrgyzstan | |
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he total area of Kyrgyzstan state fund is 2,861.3 thousand hectares including 843 thousand hectares of land covered with forests.
The main share of the total republic forest fund (89.9%) belongs to the State Forestry Agency. The woods of the forest reserves make up 4.1%, the town and fixed forests - 3.6%, the forests of the former collective farms - 2.4% of the total area of the republic state forest fund. |
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In the forests more than 170 wood and bush species grow. The predominating forest-making species are: junipers, Tien-Shan firtree and walnut-tree. The most valuable coniferous forests occupy 38.7% of the area covered with forests. The plantations of the walnut tree make up about 4.6%. |
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In the forests of northern Tien-Shan there are such kinds of trees as: firtree (Picea schrenkiana), broad-leafed species including poplar (Popules ssp.), willow (Salix spp.) in general. In western Tien-Shan, with drier territories, protected from northern winds, pistachio-tree (Amuldalus communic) grow. The famous genetic centre of the walnut forests is on the damper territories of the south, where Junglans regia is the main species. In the walnut forests the apple-tree (Malus spp.) as well as the maple (Acer spp.) grow. On the drier mountain slopes both in the north and south different kinds of the wood juniper occur.
A big share (41.3%) of the forest area is covered with bushes. |
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On the whole 4.2% of the national territory is covered with forests. The percentage of forest cover in the oblasts of the republic is as follows: Djalal-Abad oblast - 9%, Naryn - 2.2% and Chui - 2.1%.
The large tracts of forests grow at the altitude interval from 1300 to 2800 m above the sea level. |
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More than half of the coniferous and hard leaf-bearing species areas are low dense. They perform the functions of the surface flow regulation and soil erosion prevention on the mountain slopes. The productive forests with density of 0.8-1.0 make up only 7.8% of the total area of the main forest-making species. In the period 1930-1988 because of the intensive forest use the forest areas decreased almost 2 times or by 513.3 hectares, including the main forest-making species: fir-trees - 72 thous. hectares, walnut trees - 16.3 thousand hectares, juniper - 320 thousand hectares. At present, in spite of some increase of the territories covered with forest (in 1988 - 680.9 thousand hectares, in 1993 - 702.1 thousand hectares) the quality of the forests is left much to be desired. According to the data of the last registration there is a distinct tendency to the region forests ageing. The ageing process passes ahead the process of the forest renewal. |
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In the age structure of the forest, the ripe, over-ripe (44.8%) and middle-aged (32%) forest-making species predominate, but there is a noticeable deficit of the ripe (13.6%) and especially undergrowth (9.6%).These facts point to the natural ageing of forest and the necessity of its rejuvenation. Besides, loosing its main protecting functions over-ripe forests are the main hotbeds of the pests and disease affection.
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Tadjikistan | |
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| T heforests in Tajikistan are mainly spread at the altitudes from 800 to 2500 m, except the tugai forests, situated in the lower lands of the Vakhsh River and of the regions at the altitudes from 300 to 450m above the sea level. The territories covered with forests are approximately 215 thousand hectares of the total area of the state forests fund, making up 1.7 million hectares. The main quantity of the forests is under the control of the State Forestry Association "Tadjikles"(Tajik forest). |
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The territory covered with the juniper forests (20 thousand hectares) occupies about 40% of the total forest area. A juniper tree grows 1 m high during 20-50 years. The juniper tree reaches the state of the grown-up tree at the age of 130-160 years. As compared with the kinds of the wood species, growing in the republic, the juniper is exposed to anthropogenic pressure most of all because of its low rate of natural renewal.
There are heat-loving and cold-loving kinds of juniper. The cold-loving, creeping kinds of juniper are spread at the altitude of 4200 m above the sea level. The other kinds of trees have more rapid rate of growth. A walnut tree in the conditions of Tajikistan grows 1m height during 3-12 years depending on the rate of the soil moisture and external conditions. The poplar trees grow especially fast, 1m height in less than a year. The poplar and birch thickets make up about 4% of the forest area. |
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The low forest of pistachio-trees occupies 42 thousand hectares. It is about 18% of the total forest area.
Pistachio trees are long-lived plants: their age reaches 400 years and over. In Tajikistan there are such species ageing many centuries (500-650 years old). Along with natural forests a large territory is occupied with fruit trees including artificial pistachio forests, thickets of mulberry and wild apricot. Fruit trees are spread in the north of the republic. In general, all forests (98%) belong to state property and state forestry industrial enterprise "Tadjikles". It conducts main volumes of cuttings and forest plantation. In fact, this enterprise is the major forest consumer and body of forest protection. There are more than 5 thousand species of plants on the territory of Tajikistan. Many of them are endemic. 135 species of herbage, 70 containing vitamins, 120 dye and 45 tanning species are accounted on the territory of Tajikistan. Vegetation together with forests plays an important role in preventing natural disasters and is an element of "alive" landscape.
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Turkmenistan |  |
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| A t present the state forest fund area of Turkmenistan is 9.67 million hectares, or 24% of the total territory. Among them the area covered with the forests is 3.78 million hectares. (93% of sandy-deserts, 5.4% of mountainous and 1.6% of tugai and irrigated forests). |  |
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In the age forest structure the middle-aged (48.7%) and ripe (32.4%) trees with the considerable deficit of the ripe and over-ripe (16.6%) and especially saplings (2.5%) predominate. All these facts show the natural forest ageing and necessity of its rejuvenation, especially its mountain low forests.
The wood plants occupy the important place in the vegetation cover of Turkmenistan. The trees make up 3%, the bushes and small shrugs - 9% of the total number of the highest plants (3000 species). Depending on the soil-climatic conditions of different landscape zones, the wood-bush vegetation is represented differently. A considerable specific share (2-8% of the species structure) of trees in the vegetation cover is on river valleys; bushes and small shrugs are typical for sand deserts (12%). |
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The wood-bush mountain vegetation is full of different - phytocenoses and occupies about 3% of the territory. One of the most widely spread and main forest-making species of the mountain regions (1200 - 2500 m above the sea level) is juniper. In the saplings of the juniper sparse forest there are such trees as the Turkmen maples. In the under-woods there are usually thickets of the honey - suckle, meadow sweet, rose, conifer trees, etc. The juniper forests are divided into the cereals multi-grass, montainous-xerophite, rocky and other communities. The mountain gorge vegetation consists of the maple forests, nut forests, barberry bushes and etc. There are the phytocenosis of Syrian ash-tree, forming together with nut trees the groves of the gallery type here. The wild nut, fruit and berry wood bushes grow, in the gorges in the conditions typical for subtropics. In the middle mountain belt (700-1000 m above the sea level) the pistachio-trees are spread. The wood-bush vegetation of deserts is characterised by different kinds of arid plants growing. Among them, there are the conifer forests, colligonum murex and semibushes. The vegetation of the ridges, hills and hilly sands is represented by the formations of the white saksaul with the sedge grass cover, and others. The saksaul bushes differ from the other desert formation by its compact structure and a great number of species (30-150). In the white saksaul bushes the wood and semi-wood plants make up 26%. The white saksaul formation dominant is the leafless xerophyte plants 3-6 m high. The black saksaul bushes are typical for the gyps deserts - the huge areas of the Ustyurt plateau, the valleys of the KunyaDarya, Tedjen etc. In the formation of the total number of species (132), the share of the wood plants is 8, of the semi-wood - 32. The wood-bush vegetation of the river valleys is represented by the turgan formation. It is formed by two kinds of poplar: bluish bloomy and Arian narrow-leafed. Sometimes oleaster(Elaeagnus angustifolia) and willow Dungan join them and often form independent groves. The tugai bushes consist mainly of tamarisks (bristly-haired, multi-branch, friable).
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Uzbekistan | |
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he territory of Uzbekistan is poor in forest resources.
The total area of the state forest fund (SFF) is 8285.3 thousand hectares. In the state forest fund 3793.1 thousand hectares are non-forest lands. The area of the forestlands is 4492 thousand hectares, 1782 thousand hectares of them are covered with forests. In the zone distribution of the forest areas the dominating place is occupied by the sandy (deserted) forests (6971.2 thousand hectares), then mountainous forests - 1185 thousand hectares, small area is occupied by flood lands - 57.8 thousand hectares and valley forests - 71.1 thousand hectares. The main and predominating species in the forests is juniper. The area occupied by it is 204 thousand hectares. A wide range of bushes and broad-leafed species represent the rest of the areas. The desert zone forests are covered with the thickets of saksaul and the other bushes-psamaphytes. The flood land forests in the past were impenetrable tugai jungles of endemic poplars and different bushes. Plantations of introduced wood species are represented in the valley zone of the Republic. The forest area in the republic reduced 4-5 times since the beginning of the 20th century. Flood land forests, given to agricultural needs, are subject to particularly severe anthropogenic impact.
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